Draft Council Regulation fixing for 2002 the fishing opportunities and associated conditions for certain fish stocks and groups of fish stocks, applicable in Community waters and, for Community vessels, in waters where limitations in catch are required.

Legal base:

Article 37 EC; qualified majority voting

Department:

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Basis of consideration:

SEM of 4 April 2002

Previous Committee Report:

HC 152-x (2001-02), paragraph 1 (12 December 2001)

Discussed in Council:

17 December 2001

Committee's assessment:

Politically important

Committee's decision:

For debate in European Standing Committee A (decision reported on 12 December 2001)

Background

2.1 Each year, the Fisheries Council agrees the Total
Allowable Catches (TACs) for particular fish stocks in the following
calendar year, based on advice from the Advisory Committee on
Fisheries Management (ACFM) of the International Council for the
Exploration of the Sea (ICES), and of the Commission's Scientific
and Technical Committee for Fisheries. In those cases where particular
fisheries are jointly managed with third countries, the Council
agrees the Community share following negotiations with the countries
concerned; and, once the relevant TACs for the Community as a
whole have been decided or negotiated, the Fisheries Council allocates
the catch between Member States in the form of national quotas
according to a predetermined key. At the same time, the conditions
under which the quotas may be fished are specified.

2.2 The TACs proposed by the Commission for 2002 are
set out in the current document, though, since an official text
was not available when we considered them on 12 December 2001,
we had to rely substantially on an Explanatory Memorandum of 5
December 2001 from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State
(Commons) at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(Mr Elliot Morley). This dealt in particular with:

TACs and national quota allocations for fish stocks in Community
waters;

quotas for Community vessels in Third Country waters, and
in international waters regulated by regional fisheries organisations;
and

quotas for Third Country vessels in Community waters.

2.3 The quotas proposed under each of these headings
were set out in Annexes I, II and III respectively of our Report
of 12 December 2001, which also dealt at some length in paragraphs
1.5 - 1.21 with the Commission's underlying thinking, the impact
of the proposals on the stocks of major interest to the UK, and
the approach which the Government intended to pursue in the Fisheries
Council on 17 December 2001. In our conclusion, we said that,
whatever the outcome in the Council, the Regulation eventually
adopted would largely determine the opportunities available to
the UK fishing fleet during 2002. We therefore considered that
these proposals raised issues of considerable political importance,
and should be debated before any decisions were taken, and we
also noted that debates on the coming year's TACs had traditionally
taken place on the Floor of the House, as befits the importance
of the subject. However, we recognised that it would be difficult
at that late stage to arrange this before the meeting of the Fisheries
Council on 17 December, and that a debate on fisheries conservation
had been held on the Floor on 6 December. Consequently, we thought
it would be reasonable on this occasion for the debate we were
recommending to take place in European Standing Committee A.

Supplementary Explanatory Memorandum of 4 April 2002

2.4 In the event, it did not prove possible for this
debate to be held before the relevant Fisheries Council, and it
will in fact now take place on 23 April. In view of this, the
Minister has provided in his Supplementary Explanatory Memorandum
of 4 April 2002 a summary of the main changes made by the Council
to the TACs proposed by the Commission in Community waters. These
are set out in Annex A, where the Minister has highlighted the
abandonment of the "unjustified" further cuts in the
nephrops TACs, a 48 percent increase in the TAC for cod in the
Irish Sea (made possible by conservation measures previously taken
there), and a "valuable mitigation of the punitive cuts proposed
by the Commission in the TACs for monkfish". He concludes
that overall the final agreement was more favourable to the UK,
and was more in line with scientific advice.

Conclusion

2.5 We have of course already reported at some length
on the Commission's original proposals, and their implications
for the UK industry had they been adopted as they stood. We are
therefore simply drawing to the attention of the House this further
information and setting out the TACs actually agreed by the Fisheries
Council, which are relevant to the debate which has now been arranged
 albeit very belatedly  in European Standing Committee
A on 23 April.